Tag: Cultural Exchange

There is no way around it: Chinese is hard. There really is no substitute for learning Chinese than moving to China and completely immersing yourself. Still, if you regularly do business with China, it is good to at least know some of the basics of the language and appreciate why it can be so darn hard to master.

The difference between Mandarin and Cantonese

First of all, there are many different dialects and versions of the spoken Chinese language. A common misperception by foreigners is that the dialects are much like variations in accents, such as the difference between a Michigander’s accent and an Alabaman’s. The dialect differences in China are much, much more severe than this. Practically each province, even down to each local city or village, has a different local dialect. Typically, these dialects are unintelligible from one another. For example, someone from Hunan province would not be able to understand someone speaking in the local Sichuan dialect of Chinese.

Luckily, the playing field has been leveled a bit due to the pervasiveness of Mandarin Chinese, which is known as the “common Chinese language,” and is the official language of Mainland China. Another widely spoken “version,” also often referred to as a “dialect,” is Cantonese. It is mostly spoken in the southern part of China, mainly in Guangdong province and places like Hong Kong. Historically, many Chinese that immigrated to America were from Canton, and so many Chinese speakers in the United States come from a Cantonese background.*

As the official language, Mandarin boasts close to 1 billion native speakers. In my experience, native Cantonese speakers are usually also able to understand and speak Mandarin, as opposed to the other way around. I personally learned to speak Mandarin, as do most people that study Chinese. Generally, when a someone says “I am learning Chinese,” they almost always are referring to Mandarin.

How Tones Make You Sound Foreign in China

The trickiest thing about Chinese is the tones. Tones are key to attaching specific meanings to sounds in the Chinese language. The Cantonese dialect operates on nine different tones, whereas Mandarin only has five. The most frustrating problem for English speakers trying communicate in Chinese is that often they can remember and say a word phonetically correctly, but if the tone is wrong, their message might not get across.

I’m not going to go into how to master the tones too much as there are plenty of tutorials online that give you the basics, such as on ChinesePod. If you don’t have any plan to try to speak Chinese fluently, you don’t have to worry about it too much as people can understand your simple phrases. But what you should at least know is that pronouncing these words with the wrong tones is similar to when you hear a non-native English speaker speaking English with the wrong pronunciation. I.e., saying “ni hao,” the Chinese word for “hello,” with the wrong tones is like when you hear someone say “Sank You” as opposed to “Thank you.” You understand the meaning, but you know it sounds funny.

Understanding You Sound Foreign is a Good Thing!

Surprise, surprise, this works both ways! You sound foreign in China! A humbling reality, no doubt, but once you admit and understand it it can be an enormous source of personal growth. I believe accepting this reality makes it easier for you to do business in China as you can better understand and empathize with your Chinese counterparts. Chinese people truly value people with humble attitudes, and admitting you sound foreign sure helps the humble part of your persona come out. Additionally, back at home in America, it will make you more sympathetic to immigrants and other foreigners that struggle to speak English correctly.

Sank You For Reading! Now, go and embrace the foreigner in you by learning a few Chinese phrases and dare to use them wrong!

*I edited this from a previous version of this article, in which I referred to Mandarin as an “overarching dialect.” That is not really true, as Mandarin is the common Chinese language. Other versions, like Sichuanese, Hunanese, etc., are by definition “dialects of Mandarin.” Cantonese is a bit trickier because it is so widely spoken again and has many more tones than Mandarin Chinese, though it is most often referred to as a “widely spoken dialect.”

In a global city of over 20 million people, it certainly comes naturally that people are literally at every moment coming and going. Still, you really only feel it when it happens to you; when the phrase “coming and going” is more about the “going,” and the “going” really is someone close to you.

Lately, I’ve come to feel like Beijing has been a revolving door for friends and colleagues coming in and out. Take this weekend for example. I was alerted to no less than 5 “going away” dinners and/or parties for 5 different friends. Some of them have surely weaved in and out of closeness with me over the years, but the idea that they were “leaving for good” nonetheless gave me a sense of obligation to participate in each schwaree no matter how tired or over-booked I may have been.

There is a phrase I often catch myself using to describe life Beijing, and that word is “transient.” People of course come and go out of your life all the time, no matter where you live. I don’t think, on the surface, the transience of life is different in Beijing than it would be anywhere else. The transience of life is typically more evident when your are in your 20s and early 30s. So much about the course of your life is uncertain. You are youthful and are still ironing out the details on the most important, long-term relationships that will govern the rest of your life.

As I was reminiscing on this past weekend, on the 8ish parties I attended (people really hate saying goodbye. Most people “going away” held no less than 3 good-bye functions attended mostly by the same people!), I was trying to think about what makes the transience of Beijing perhaps different and more profound than in some other places. I was thinking about my friends Chris and Flamingo, who met here and are moving back to Seattle. He is an American, she is from Hong Kong. Or my friend Patrick, who is a Chinese-American who spent one year here in China to rediscover his roots and is returning to medical school in the U.S. And then there is my friend Evan – someone I’ve lost touch with while living in Beijing, but of course made sure to be at his goodbye party and wish him well as he returns back across to the Pacific to go to business school in Boston.

I then started to think about some of the people that come in and out of my life on a more regular basis. My friend Chris from Shanghai, who comes up to Beijing every month for work or pleasure. Or my friend Kate that just left for America and will be back next week. These are journeys of long distances, that cross through different cultures and time zones. And in many ways, for those of us that have lived in Beijing for an extended period, we find it old hat. Everyone is so well-traveled, willing and excited to accept diverse situations, and to constantly manage global relationships on a daily basis. We’re used to it, and it truly is something that we take for granted.

That, I think is the most profound part of the transience of Beijing. We have the privilege to be stewards of the revolving door, while living out our own unique, global stories. We can deal with the consistent heartache of saying goodbye to people we treasure, but inherently know that there are always going to be new faces to fill the void.

More importantly, we are learning how to manage the important people in our lives, wherever they are in the world, and whatever time zone. And the longer we do it, the more we learn about our own endurance and who we really are. It is not an easy lifestyle, though it can be extremely fulfilling. In the end, it really is about you and your journey. Keep in mind that someday, whatever your threshold is, you may also be on the “going” end of a goodbye party. What story about your transient life in Beijing will you tell?

Michigan State University recently began engaging the entire global MSU community in a “Global Service Day.” It is a great cause that gives Spartans an opportunity to collectively give back in one, big, global effort. On April 18, Spartans around the world will organize their alumni clubs to engage in service projects in their community. The website they’ve put together is pretty cool; you can follow the activities of Spartans around the globe on #MSUServiceDay on Twitter.

Our alumni club in Beijing wanted to get involved in this great event, and began seeking opportunities where we could make an impact. One of the advisors for our club is a professor at Eastern Michigan University (we Michiganders in China stick together!), and she has been volunteering at this place called the Rural Women’s School of Beijing (officially known as the “Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Women”). I decided to look into it, and after visiting, I knew right away this was a great cause for us to get behind.

What is the Rural Women’s School of Beijing?

From the English website: “The Center is an NGO promoting the advancement and personal development of rural women. It includes the Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women, the Migrant Women’s Club, Rural Women Magazine ‘s grassroots activities centers and projects for women’s development in rural communities. It is a non-profit organization with an integrated program that “supports the poor and empowers rural women by combining development projects, news media and information services, and dissemination of the outcome of our research.”

Looking deeper, I found that the original founder, Wu Qing, was a revered member of the Beijing

Principal Luo Discusses the School (click picture to link to the video)

The school is administered by Principal Luo Zhaohong, who has been serving the school for over a decade. In 2013, Caixin Online did a piece about the school and recorded a great video interview that really captures the principal’s servant spirit and the impact this school has made over the years.

According to Principal Luo, the school operates on a budget of about 2.5 Million RMB (roughly $400,000), which comes mostly through private donations.

My Visit

The school is located wayyyy outside the 6th Ring road in Beijing. Quite a trek for those of us used to staying in the confines of the CBD or Sanlitun area. (Even though it can be rough sometimes, my advice is to get out of the central part of the city at least once a month anyways to remind yourself there is scenery in life other than pollution, bars, hotels and skyscrapers! Did you know there are mountains surrounding Beijing? :)).

Principal Luo and I

When I met Principal Luo and her staff, I was immediately greeted with a spirit of warmth and gratitude. They were very gracious that I would have done something as simple as even paying a brief visit to the school! The principal walked me around the grounds for a tour, and spent a great deal of time showing me the pictures they’ve displayed of volunteers, both Chinese and foreign, that have given their time at the school over the years.

I learned that the school has served tens of thousands of women from across China, representing pretty much all of the ethnic minority groups that have clans in China. Normally, the women will come for 3 months at a time to receive training in different fields like school teaching, medicine, or leadership. The key objective is to help the women become more creative and resourceful, to be able to grow and impact their home communities.

Girls from Guizhou Training at the School

I had the privilege of engaging some of the girls in the current cohort. These girls are all between the ages of 16 – 20 and come from poor, rural communities like Guizhou in southern China, and have come to receive training to be Kindergarten teachers back home.

I really learned a lot and built a connection, and felt strongly compelled to make this school the cause our club would contribute to for the MSU Global Service Day.

Service Activity: Secondhand Item and Monetary Donation Drive at Home Plate Sanlitun

To make a more lasting impact and to provide the school with resources it needs, we decided to extend the service project beyond the April 18th day to give people the opportunity to donate. This gives MSU and non-MSU alums in Beijing the chance to make an impact! Graciously, Home Plate Restaurant in Sanlitun, which also hosted many of the Spartan NCAA tournament game watches, volunteered to act as a depot for item drop off and cash donations.

The drive began only a few weeks ago, and already we’ve gathered many items that will be useful for the school – printers, paper, pencils, crayons, and even kitchen appliances. The biggest items they need are a new fax machine and laptop computers to enhance their training activities.

The Donation Drive is going on from now until April 17th at Home Plate. On April 18th, we are gathering a group of volunteers to drive out to the school to deliver the monetary and secondhand item donations. As part of our visit, we will engage the students and staff in an arts and crafts and recreational activity to be announced.

Please DM me @Danredford or email me at danredford10@gmail.com if you would like to join us. This activity is open to Spartans and non-Spartans alike!

Today, February 24th, marks the end of the official Chinese New Year holiday. But, the party doesn’t have to stop. In fact, my friends at the Detroit Chinese Business Association are throwing a belated Chinese New Year Gala this coming Friday, February 27th, at Motor City Casino. Lucky for you, I have three quick CNY tips that you can use to impress your Chinese guests.

1. The many ways to say “Happy New Year!”

There is an assortment of Chinese phrases used to express Happy New Year. Here are a few:

全家幸福（Pinyin：Quánjiā xìngfú；pronounced: Chew-enn Jia Shing-Foo) – Here you are wishing their entire family good fortune.

万事如意（Pinyin：Wànshì rúyì；pronounced: Wan-SHH ROO-EE)- Ok, this will REALLY impress them. It is a very traditional phrase meaning “Good luck and may all your wishes come true.”

If you can’t remember them, you can always download Google translate (iPhone, Android). Make sure you are translating from CHINESE TO ENGLISH, and then paste the Chinese characters I wrote above into the translation window. You can click on the little speaker next to the phrase and the phone will pronounce it in Chinese for you. Pretty slick.

If you’re doing business in China and you or someone at your office doesn’t have WeChat yet on your smartphone, GET IT NOW! WeChat is used prolifically in business, and according to statista.com, there are now over 438 million active monthly users. It is by far the best way for you to keep communication with your business partners in China, and new friends you will make at this year’s gala.

Trust me, your Chinese guests will be really impressed when right after you meet them you say “Hey, can I add your Wechat?” You can read in Forbes about how WeChat was used across China during this Chinese New Year.

3. Gan Bei! Cheers!

Drinking is a huge part of the Chinese New Year tradition. So you can survive, and thrive, at this year’s Chinese New Year Gala, you need to remember the phrase for cheers in Chinese, “Gan Bei” (pronounced GAAN-BAY). Critically, make a point to cheers everyone INDIVIDUALLY at your table, and if you’re up for it, everyone around the room. Don’t be lazy! Clinking glasses with everyone for a personal toast is very important, and it should be fun. If you can remember to add one of my Happy New Year phrases above, you get bonus points!

I hope you enjoy your time at the gala and that you find these tips useful. If you do happen to use them, I would love to hear about it! You can write me at danredford10@gmail.com or tweet me @DanRedford. Gan Bei!

“Gan Bei” with my girlfriend and her cousins for Chinese New Year 2015 in Yueyang, Hunan Province

It is hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. Chinese New Year is on Wednesday, and festivities are already beginning. As I wrote last year, every year at this time in China we witness the greatest annual human migration. And once again, hundreds of millions of people will be moving across China, taking approximately 3.6 billion travel journeys.

This year I’m keeping it domestic, traveling with my girlfriend to her relatives’ home in Hunan and Jiangsu. For those of you traveling in China for the holidays, here are five tips to make sure you survive and have fun!

1. Be Vigilant!

The U.S. Embassy has recently issued a warning to be wary of potential terrorist attacks being planned around Chinese New Year. Although the odds are low that you’d be in the midst of something terrible like this, just please be vigilant as you are traveling this season. There has been an uptick in violent acts in public places recently throughout China, so be sure to keep your eyes open while you are shifting through huge crowds of travelers.

If you haven’t yet, take the opportunity now to register yourself with the state department if you are traveling abroad: https://step.state.gov/step/

2. Brush up on your local dialect

Since over half of China’s population now live and work in cities, the Spring Festival is an important time when families will leave the metropoles and return to see their families in their laojia, or hometown. Although the common language of Mandarin is spoken throughout China, more often in smaller cities local dialects are almost uniformly spoken. Make no mistake, local dialects are so different than Mandarin that even Chinese people cannot understand local dialects from outside their hometown.

Do what you can to brush up on a local dialect before your trip, but generally just reside yourself to nodding and smiling for most of your trip.

In the U.S., we like to think that hundreds of millions of viewers watching the Super Bowl every year is a big deal. China has us beat. The most widely watched television program in the world occurs in China every year. It is called the “Spring Festival Gala,” or “New Year’s Gala,” and it is broadcast live on China Central Television (CCTV) every Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Last year, the show garnered over 800 million viewers! According to statista.com, that’s almost as many as the number of people that watched the Super Bowl in the entire 1990s combined.

If you are spending the Spring Festival somewhere in China with friends and family, the tube will most definitely be turned to this on New Year’s Eve.

4. Get your excuses ready to turn down Baijiu

Baijiu, translated as “white liquor,” is the famous national Chinese liquor. It tastes a little bit like lighter fluid mixed with bubble gum. For those of us that have spent years in China, we’ve been able to develop a tolerance, perhaps even a likeness, to the “devil’s juice.”

But Chinese New Year is a whole different animal when it comes to Baijiu. If you are spending this time in a Chinese city, you have to be prepared to be tempted to cheers to baijiu again, and again, and again.

If you can’t handle it, don’t be embarrassed. Make sure you come prepared with excuses to turn down the frequent clinking of the little glasses. A real man can handle a little cajoling from the relatives better than he can handle copious amounts of the liquor itself. Trust me, your liver will thank you later.

Some of the best ones:

“I’m an American and Chinese New Year is not a holiday in America, so I have work to do and can’t be drunk.”

“I’m allergic.”

“I’m preparing for a decathlon.” (Bring athletic gear to really sell it on this one.)

5. Go Native

Wherever you might find yourself in China this Spring Festival, you’re going to find yourself with plenty of opportunities to share in local traditions. As the Chinese say, ru xiang sui su – “Do as the Romans Do.” Eat all the weird food. Get up early and join in the sometimes quirky “family exercises.” Keep offering to help cook the meal and clean the dishes, even though you know that they’ll never let you.

Whether you can speak Chinese or not, these efforts will be endearing and are the best way to show your gratefulness for being invited into their home for this all-important holiday. Plus, going native is the sure fire way for you to grow and learn the most during this time.

Every year in China about this time, the ground starts to shake. Don’t be too alarmed; I’m not talking about an earthquake. I’m talking about China’s most important holiday, “Chinese New Year,” otherwise known as “Chunyun” or “Spring Festival.” Since living in China and experiencing the Spring Festival first hand, I’ve come to prefer another, more descriptive term for this holiday season: the world’s largest annual human migration.

In China, it is estimated that for this year’s Spring Festival, there will be over 3.6 billion “journeys” by Chinese people trying to make it home by plane, train, bus, or anything in between. For comparison, in the U.S. a mere 93.3 million people travelled domestically during the 2012 holiday season.

Unlike in the West where the year-end holiday season marks a mild slowdown in business and about 10 days off of work, the Chinese Spring Festival puts that to shame. Those 3.6 billion journeys will happen over a period of 40 days, this year lasting from January 16th to February 24th. For foreigners that are accustomed to doing business in China, this can be one of the most frustrating and confusing times of the year. If one is used to returning to their home country for the traditional Western holiday season, it is often just as practical to stay put and “wait out” the Spring Festival time.

Even though the New Year’s holidays do not officially begin until January 31st, there is a strong feeling of lethargy that begins in mid-January, creeping up gradually to the official holiday in which all business stops. While it is advisable to avoid trying to do business in China during this time, it is an amazing, albeit hectic, time to witness the complicated mix of wonderment and chaos that is modern China. The reason that the roads and trains are so crowded with people is that millions upon millions of people across China’s biggest cities are considered waidiren, or “out-of-towners.” According to the China Labour Bulletin, around 260 million Chinese farmers have moved from their hometowns for work in the cities.

These millions of people flock to metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen to find higher paying jobs than they could get at home. They spend most of their days in the city working long hours for salaries that net less than $500 a month on average. Half or more of that salary will be sent back to their families in their hometown. For most, the Spring Festival time is a nice respite from a long year of work, and a time to be reunited with family.

Needless to say, this holiday exacerbates China’s ongoing transportation nightmares. China has invested billions of dollars over the last decade into building the world’s largest network of fast-speed trains, collectively crisscrossing China’s terrain with over 12,000km (roughly 7,450 miles) of High-Speed Rail (HSR). It has been an impressive achievement, and yet, according to Want China Times, the rail lines can only accommodate 220 million people, a mere 10% of Spring Festival travelers. China’s massive population continues to force the country to keep moving and continue building to accommodate higher demands for people to more conveniently transport between the big cities and the rest of China. It is for this reason that China is aiming to have 19,000 kilometers of operational HSR by 2015, averaging construction of 10,000 km of new rails lines annually over the next few years.

For those of us living here, all we can really do is witness and experience the migration of millions of people at a time. Now, more than ever, it will need to innovate at a higher pace to keep up with a changing population with new concerns and higher expectations.

Still, as we consider the meaning of Spring Festival for Chinese people, it ultimately is a time for family and tradition. The billions of journeys happening across China are not just about the hectic travel but also about the warm embrace of loved ones that have come from afar. It is Chinese tradition over the Chunyun holiday season to blast off fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and continue to do so every day until the seasons officially ends 15 days later. One of my fondest memories from living in China was experienced while at a friend’s hometown village in Northeast Liaoning province. Though the air outside was a chilly 35 degrees below zero, our hearts were warm as the tiny village lit up with fireworks that were being shot up dozens at a time into the cold night air.

Huge gatherings of Chinese extended families come together at this time; it is not uncommon to have 30 or more relatives staying under the same roof for the holiday season. It is an amazingly warm experience filled with love and tradition that only comes around once a year.

The Spring Festival is an essential piece of Chinese culture that must be understood and respected to really be an effective observer or businessperson in this complicated country. So if you haven’t already, go wish all your Chinese colleagues and friends a happy and bless Year of the Horse!

Dan Redford is the Director of China Operations for FirstPathway Partners, and industry leading EB5 immigration fund manager. He also serves as the President of the Michigan State University Beijing Alumni Club. You can follow him and his perspectives from China athttp://www.danredford.com.

Last weekend, American football came to Beijing! An organization called AFL China, which involves none other than famous footballer and ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown Legend Ron “Jaws” Jaworski, hoped to make the Arena Football League a popularly played professional sport here in China. On Sunday, November 10th, they hosted the first ever Arena Football League All Star Game at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

And who does football better than the Big Ten? When the Big Ten Clubs got wind of this a few weeks ago, we were armed and ready to do what we do best: TAILGATE! It is really amazing what happens when a few people have an idea and just decide to run with it. Within 2 weeks, a group that included myself (President, MSU Beijing Alumni Club), Marco Reyes (President, U Illinois Beijing Alumni Club), Sylvia Liu (Purdue Beijing), and Tom Degregoris (Notre Dame Beijing) got together with the AFL China team to sell almost 250 tickets to the game through the Big Ten Network. Then in the morning before the game, we hosted the first ever American Football Tailgate in Beijing. Over 100 people representing 20 universities came out for beer, sausages, and all the fixins of an America-style football tailgate. We believe it is the start of a great new tradition!!

I’m flattered by a recent article posted in Dome Magazine by Tom Watkins highlighting my China journey. The article is called China Dan, and you can read the article on Dome here or read the whole text below.

Truthfully, my global journey has been an amazing experience, but its a road that I do believe will lead me back to the Mitten state someday!

China Dan

by Tom Watkins

There is much angst about the brain drain in Michigan. You’ve heard it: Our young college grads securing education, knowledge, skills and talent only to flee the state after graduation.

Yet it is a big world out there, and Michigan has two beautiful peninsulas — we are not an island.

Perhaps Michigan will benefit from the worldly experiences our youth gain elsewhere, if the magnetic pull of Pure Michigan can draw them back someday.

I met one such young man, Dan Redford, in his senior year at Michigan State University. He flew the coop and now makes his home in Beijing, China. Dan is fluent in Chinese and bleeds “Green” as a proud MSU grad.

Redford earned a bachelor’s degree with a double major in Chinese and international relations from James Madison College at MSU.

Redford, now 25, originally wanted to get a political science degree and attend law school. That all changed after his first trip to China in 2008.

Why China? He first fell in love with the language, and after his Middle Kingdom trip in 2008, taking in the sights, sounds, culture, language and people, he was hooked. The added excitement of the 2008 Olympics pulled him into the China orbit.

Redford grew up in Frankenmuth, a town of 4,000 people – in stark contrast to Beijing’s nearly 20 million people. As he says, “There are nearly as many people in my Chinese apartment building as there are in the entire city of Frankenmuth”.

Living in the Chinese capital, Redford feels like he is at the center of the most dynamic, unfolding story of the modern world. He clearly is, as China is the fastest growing large world economy, bursting with possibilities. Going forward, all major world geopolitical issues will intersect at Beijing and Washington, D.C.

Redford is director of China operations for First Pathway Partners of Milwaukee, promoting this Midwest state in China. Yet, he is a Michigan cheerleader, as well as one for Wisconsin, and a one-man marketing crew promoting the Mitten State with his unbound enthusiasm.

Does he miss Michigan? Of course. He would like nothing better than to mesh his love for Michigan and love for all things China. His life ambition is to “make a lasting impression on everyone I meet, and meet as many people as possible before I’m done.”

Redford credits his time at MSU with helping to open his eyes to the world. His first trip to China was through a study abroad program. MSU taught him to “think globally”.

Redford appreciates Governor Rick Snyder’s efforts to make Michigan a friendly place for immigrants and to build bridges.

“Governor Snyder is taking risks to propel Michigan forward past denial and to thrive on the global stage,” he says.

When asked what advice he would offer high school kids, he responds, “Find something to be passionate about and let God be your compass. Let your passions drive you forward.”

Sound advice from a young man who has circled the globe.

Yes, Michigan has lost Redford for now.

At some point in the future, he will return to Michigan and our state will get its ROI — return on investment — from his global experience and perspective.

A few months ago, I posted about my TV debut on a Chinese television show called “助跑80后“ （The Road after 1980）。The episode was filmed in July, but was finally aired on Chinese Education TV, an affiliate of Chinese Central Television (CCTV) on October 24th.

During the show, we interviewed the special guest, Fang Fang, Vice President of JP Morgan Chase Asia. It was a great experience, and I learned alot about how many Chinese young people approach the job hunting process in China. Chinese young people, just like Americans, often struggle to find a suitable job that pays a decent wage after college. We face the same pressures, and would do well to learn from each other.

And once again, this was all made possible due to the MSU Network. The host of the show was introduced to me by her husband, Ray Wu, a good friend and graduate of MSU. Go Green!

I am so proud of my friend, colleague, and professor, Dr. Geri Zeldes of Michigan State University for producing and directing a great documentary about the experience of Chinese students at MSU, Imported from China. The documentary featured the journey of a few Chinese students at MSU, along with American students that reflect on their interactions with the influx of Chinese in our community. It premiered at MSU on September 17th, and will soon be distributed widely. I believe it will be a great tool for any university or school that is experiencing an influx of Chinese students and is looking to serve them better.

I am honored to have been interviewed and included in the documentary, along with some of my other respected and dear friends, including Jing Cui, Tom Watkins, Peter Briggs, and Joy Fu.

MSU is currently home to over 3,600 Chinese students. This puts our university at the heart and center of one of the world’s most dynamic and unfolding stories – the one between China and the U.S. As the documentary says, “Like it or Not, we are linked together.” At MSU, we are creating leaders of a generation that I believe will guide us through a prosperous and fulfilling modern U.S. – China relationship.

If you are interested in screening this video at your school or for your alumni club, please contact me and I can put you in touch with Geri.